idolpro | persephone heart game, run 2

[Cardinal's only real advantage is speed: they are arrow-fast with their feints and strikes, flitting away from Hiroto's sword with a dancer's easy timing.]

You're a blunt instrument, Hiroto. You'd be better off in someone else's hands. Shame no-one taught you the pleasure of being commanded! The war of all against all is better than the chokehold of a tyrant—I think Persephone would agree!

Edited 2021-01-28 05:25 (UTC)

[keep right on moving, Rye, do you like being chased by sunlight swords that are just like, dropping from the air?]

I'm not trying to make a kinder world. That is for whoever comes after me.

[crackle. crackle. crackle. you can hear Kirsi's voice, static-y, as if having trouble. A moment..

and then a sword comes dropping out of midair. a regular sword, not one of Hiroto's.]

[Hiroto is a big man, broad-shouldered and powerful. and yet moves surprisingly quick for his size: not as fast as Cardinal, but he's definitely surprisingly graceful. not slow by any means.]

Would he? He's seen the petty princes and domain lords wreak havoc through inaction and exploiting their people, through their wars and being unable to go past that in order to protect their people. He hates them as much as I do.

[ a voice cuts across the courtyard, just precisely loud enough to cut through the sound of fighting, and pitched just right to cut above Hiroto's speech: ]

Miura, if I could have a word.

[ Shrike is standing in the doorway to the courtyard, and also at some point seems to have acquired a big fuckoff evil-looking sword that she's holding like it weighs about as much as a stick. ]

[This is fire, he's run from fires from above before, this is raid training all over again.]

And your response is to be as selfish and childish as them. Spoken like someone whose never had to actually take a risk to make a better world. Too much of a coward?

[He's grabbing the sword on the pass and oh, hello Shrike, he thinks he's just maneuver to be on opposing sides as Cardinal and her.]

KAKAKAKAKAKAKAKA

[ EVIL LAUGHTER. He's just marching toward this whole thing with murder in his eyes now that he's finally made it outside...!! ]

At last. I am going to relish burying this man beneath the ground and tearing him apart upon my very claws.

[ Sweetie pls remember you don't have a weapon yet or a working dragon's claw ]

Edited 2021-01-28 06:52 (UTC)

[Wanders in

Hm you guys all seem pretty angry. He has no idea who this is! Not going to stop him from getting right into the fray though. He doesn't have any weapons but he's about the same size as Hiroto, and has dmc confidence, so he's absolutely trying just to grab the man.]

Are we killing this person?

[Calling out,] I need him alive with one working hand!

[Cardinal draws back to give the others room to move in.]

Hmph. A word, is it? [this first to Shrike, and his next words are directed at everyone, though primarily at Cardinal.] You are welcome to try.

[Shrike may recognize the low and threatening tone: said in the same tone as 'I have two arms' from one of Persephone's memories.

Even more sunlight traces down his arms: Vergil can try to grapple him, but Hiroto's strength is beyond mortal limits, and even as strong as Vergil is, it's a battle he's pretty clearly losing and rapidly. That being said...

all of you feel an answering echo, somewhere in you. it's only an echo, as if something is waiting, on the precipice of something. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet.]

[and Hiroto's next words are directed at Rye.]

You have no idea of the risks I have taken. Of what I have done, and dared.

Nor you have any idea of what our world is actually like.

[huh, that's a hell of a lot of sunlight sword spinning up in the air. ~~okay your GM is a fucking hack who just ran the Crown of the Immaculate EX about like twenty times last week.~~.]

[Vergil and Leviathan, you hear static in your heads, as if Kirsi is having a hard time trying to establish a connection. which, given the man in front of you right now, makes sense.]

A...a moment...

[a whip sword and katana come falling out of the air. probably land on the ground somewhere nearby, just as the connection breaks. look, he fucking tried, okay.]

I on the other hand, know quite a bit, Miura, so please tell me: why do you persist? Because, as both you and I know, there's always an ending.

Even for war. Even for anguish. Even for tyrants.

[ and with that she is, in fact, cutting through the courtyard before he can finish materializing more of those gleaming swords, and—listening to that echo. ]

Oh please, you think you're special? Unique? I've seen people who slaughter out of good intentions, and I know people who become conquerors for their own satisfaction.

And the fact you can't even sway the heart of the person in your home is proof of your cowardice.

The world doesn't unite, doesn't change with force. All you do is end one tyrant and replace them with another. You will unite nothing. You will just have another group in power and another forms who want to end you. And you will be ended. You have to succeed everytime. They only have to succeed once.

The only way you change the world is to change people. You have reach their hearts, you have to convince them to believe. You have to trust them and rely on them to help you build a better world. Sometimes force is necessary, sometimes you have to make a call.

But the fact you don't even reach the heart of Persephone is proof you don't even try anything, but force. Because you're afraid. Afraid that you're not enough. That you can't do it.

Fact is, you were a failure before you began.

[Listen, he got Hiroto to focus on him, and he's willing to distract, but he's also got some Feelings.]

[He is keeping track of those sunlight swords, he's listening to that echo, because he's always been good at dividing his attention when death might be imminent.]

[ Not yet!? But he wanted to murder this guy, like, YESTERDAY??

He does... notice that whip sword though, and yeah he is going to reach for that.

He'll let the others talk for a moment without adding much of his own because he's trying to be a good boy and not just do a murder right now. Though he really doesn't wanna keep him alive for any purpose whatsoever.

Just try and focus on the voice Levi. Just do that.

Gao Gao Gao ]

[Vergil feels like he really missed a lot here. Hm.

But if they're meant to listen to whispers...even though he goes to pick up that katana immediately, he does otherwise back off. It seems like Shrike knows what she's doing here, so he tries to stick with her. Besides, he should have her back.]

[only very briefly to Rye, because his attention is mostly on Shrike.]

Change hearts? Why don't you ask my flower how that has worked for him before?

[gestures, sunlight spark briefly igniting around his fingers. orichalcum plate materializes, locking into place on his body piece by piece. full plate. ~~no helm, though, because this is fucking Exalted and we work on cool.~~. a golden sunburst glitters on his forehead.] Will you be the one to make me answer, Sorrowful Blade of the Softly-Falling Rain? Bring that ending, then, if you can!

[he moves impossibly fast for a man of his size and armor: as he launches himself at her, golden lightning crackles around him and the clap of thunder.]

Edited 2021-01-31 03:06 (UTC)

[it's not quite a voice. more...the echo of attunement. for Rye and Leviathan it's only midnight brief and feather-light, petals against your skin.

For a barest moment, Vergil and Cardinal can feel the dark glimmer of something more, the faintest possibility, before it ebbs.

Shrike, on the other hand...she's felt this power before, felt Essence running through her veins and flexed it herself, made the world bend and do impossible things through the power of her Essence and puissant skill. This isn't hers, this time, but she's borrowing a midnight fragment of deathly glory and black Essence limns her daiklave. She can't see it, but a black circle is stark against her forehead.]

[ well

she has no idea what the fuck a midnight caste is supposed to do but she does know how to hit a man with her sword repeatedly. which is to say, she doesn't respond to him in words, but in the clash of steel against steel; the picture of perfect, placid calm that has no need to fear the outcome.

and then pulls back her knee and slams the bottom of her boot into his chest, trying to knock him back. ]

We know how this ends, Persephone. I want to know how the next chapter starts. You helped me tell a new story—so let me help tell yours.

[What's an attunement. He has no idea, but there isn't a chorus of whispers, so he'll lean into the feeling, see if he can feel more.]

Then you make a choice. [There is a tone in that, that does imply sometimes that choice needs blood.] When there's other people, nothing works everytime, but that's why you try again anyway.

[And it doesn't take much to see Shrike is Very Much A Better Fighter than Rye. He can fight, but there's a difference between holding one's own and being Good.]

[Which is why when he moves in, he doesn't get into the fight, but he's absolutely going to swing at Hiroto's back if he tries to put too much distance between him and Shrike.]

And do you truly think that neither of us ever tried to make that choice? Perhaps your world is kinder, boy, but ours is not. [a connection. the midnight touch is still brief and feather-light, as if you need to do something to wake it. it's stirring, a little, but not much.

he meets her strikes, parries them, steel ringing on steel (and orichalcum on soulsteel) like a hammer on iron, but it's obvious that they are matched in skill and power - and her boot catches him in the chest with a metallic thud and he stumbles back a couple of paces. he's not putting any more distance between them, as he's launching himself at her again. ]

[ her expression just—shifts, slightly. not quite the smile like the smooth, black surface of a lake under the night sky, where you might think you stepped out into nothingness, but with a hint of warmth to it—

just a faint smile. ]

This time he won't do it alone, though—whatever choice he wants to make. But let him make it no longer overshadowed by his fate.

[ she knows how to channel Essence, how to draw the power in the air and the earth to her fingertips, for strength and vigor and miracles—and lashes out with her large sword, one-handed, right at the center of his chest. ]

Like I said.

You have to be willing trust others to help you make that change. Shrike's already guaranteed a change for Persephone, a chance to succeed.

[He's ready to keep Hiroto from getting far, back, and a chance to maybe cut off to one side-]

[Kirsi, I feel something. How do I get it?]

[static. static. static. crackle. Kirsi's voice comes through, barely audible, but everyone can hear it.]

If you're...certain...

Not enough...simply be ready...

You must...you must...[fading in and out] Act.

Edited (edit) 2021-01-31 04:58 (UTC)

[he manages to parry Shrike's blow just enough. it still hits with considerable force: enough to knock him back, and orichalcum rings with the force of the blow, bright and clear in the air.

is that a scratch, on that golden armor? but he doesn't falter for longer than a moment or two, footing once again sure on the courtyard ground as he attacks Shrike, all his strength behind it, sunlight glowing even more intensely.]

[It's proper that Shrike, Persephone's friend, be the one to fight his demons, but clearly she needs some help. Cardinal has had a taste of essence before, and, well, Sashay's did say they would make a good Lunar. The symbolism at play is obvious: the sun burns everything under it indiscriminately, but it's forced to bow to the cool balm of night at the end of each day.

When Cardinal feels the faint flicker of power, they're already certain, and they snatch for the sense of the power. It's Amaranth's own example they have in mind. Amaranth used the an illusion of the light of dawn to dazzle the forces of darkness, and now Cardinal will pull a black veil across the sky from their own name, and from the oldest saying in the world: it is always darkest just before dawn.]

[ she doesn't let Hiroto rest for a moment; she has the stamina to keep pressing the attack (perhaps, borrowing Persephone's exaltation, even more than she usually would?) and uses every dirty trick in the book to try and drive him back and knock him down.

And she listens—listening again, for, over the clash of steel on steel, that gentle, suppressed sung melody, and hums along as she meets him blow for blow. ]

persephone heart game, run 2

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